History of Camden and Rockport, Maine, Part 1

Author: Robinson, Reuel
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Camden, Me. : Camden Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 678

USA > Maine > Knox County > Camden > History of Camden and Rockport, Maine > Part 1
USA > Maine > Knox County > Rockport > History of Camden and Rockport, Maine > Part 1

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GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01092 2034

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HISTORY

CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT

MAINE

REUEL ROBINSON

Member of The Maine Historical Society

"But the land, whither ye go in to possess it, 1

is a land of hills and valleys."

Deuteronomy, 11, 11.

"Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur."

Virgil.

1907 CAMDEN PUBLISHING COMPANY CAMDEN, MAINE

1136799

To the friends of CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT wherever gathered or scattered, this volume is respectfully dedicated.

PREFACE.

The old town of Camden, which includes the present towns of Camden and Rockport, has a most interesting history, to pre- serve which is the object of this volume. Mr. Locke's excellent "Sketches of the History of Camden " has long been out of print, and but a few copies are now extant. That work was published nearly half a century ago, and many important events, happen- ing since its publication, would have become lost to future genera- tions unless someone had undertaken the task of compiling a new history. As no one else seemed inclined to enter upon the undertaking the writer essayed the arduous and somewhat delicate work of putting into print the deeds and lives of the Camden and Rockport people from the earliest period to the present time.

This work is essentially a "home made" production, as the author is a citizen of Camden, it was printed by the Camden Publishing Company and bound by Mr. Edwin F. Dillingham of Bangor, who is a member of an old Camden family and one of Camden's oldest and most loyal summer residents.

The author does not claim that the work is in all respects a complete one. No work of the kind can be complete, and he is conscious that many important events may have been left out and that from the personal sketches of the lives of men of the two towns some doubtless have been omitted who are as deserving of mention as many whose lives have been given. This many may regret and none more than the author, who has used his best endeavors to select for record those events that seemed of the greatest interest, and if any men of note have been left unmen- tioned, it has been due to inadvertence, lack of knowledge of

vii

viii

PREFACE

them, or because their friends and descendants have failed to furnish the necessary data.

Miss Emily Eaton in her preface to the Second Edition of Eaton's Annals of Warren, said that her chief subject of regret was that "errors would creep in." That some errors should be made in the compilation of a work of this character would seem inevit- able, especially when printed in a busy newspaper and job-print- ing office where it was sometimes necessary to print the pages of the book and distribute the type for other use before the text had been properly corrected, and a few errors will be found in this work. Such of them as are purely typographical, as for instance, an occasional miss-spelled word, or a wrong punctuation, can be easily understood. A few that are of more importance, so far as noted, have been corrected in the "errata " on page 630 and re- ferred to in the index.

In collecting and collating the material for this history the writer has received courteous treatment and generous aid from all to whom he has applied, and with pleasure acknowledges the valuable assistance given by many. While he cannot mention them all he feels under special obligations to the late Joseph W. Ogier and Mrs. Sarah (Stetson) Glover, the former dying in 1906 and the latter still living, both having passed four score years, but who, keen of intellect, and with faculties unimpaired, were sources of much valuable information; also to Mr. W. A. L. Rawson, Mrs. C. E. Wetherbee of Camden, and Capt. Wm. H. Thorndike, Mr. Joseph S. Eells, Hon. H. L. Shepherd and Geo. H. M. Barrett, Esq., of Rockport.

Knowing the generous disposition of those who will be most interested in a history of these towns, the author submits to the public this work, with its many imperfections, and com- mends it to the kindly consideration of the friends of Camden and Rockport.

Camden, Maine, January 15, 1907.

REUEL ROBINSON.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. First View 1

II. Location, Natural Features, Climate, etc 8

III. The Aboriginl 15

IV. The Muscongus Grant ·

V. The Waldo Patent and Twenty Associates 27

VI. The First Settlers .

VII. The Revolution ·

VIII. The Majorbiguyduce Expedition 52

IX. Other Revolutionary Events

XI. Settlement Revives . 72

XII. Last Days of the Plantation .

XIII. £ The Town Incorporated 88

XIV. Excerpta from Ancient Records .

XV. Events of the Waning Century . 105

XVI. Opening of the Turnpike 114

XVII. The First Settled Minister 122

XVIII. A Period of Depression 131

XIX. Concerning Military Affairs

140

X. Some Hunting Yarns and Other Incidents

CONTENTS

XX. "The War for Seamen's Rights" 149

XXI. The Alarms of War 158

XXII. The Town Fortified 166

XXIII. Sundry Warlike Adventures .

175

XXIV. The Visit of the "Furieuse "

184

XXV. The War Closes

192

XXVI. Parochial Troubles

201

XXVII. A New State . 212

XXVIII. Political Concord 222

XXIX. The Temperance Movement Begins . 231

XXX. Atticus, the Slave

242

XXXI. A Newspaper and the Harrison Campaign

252

XXXII. Secret Societies 264

XXXIII. A Port of Entry

274

XXXIV. Fate of the Filibusters

286

XXXV. Enters "Rockport "

295

XXXVI. Political Ebullitions 302

XXXVII. A Bridge Fight

311

XXXVIII. A Little Cloud Like a Man's Hand

321

XXXIX. The Storm Bursts

332

XL. A Naval Hero

339

XLI. The Conflict Deepens

346

XLII. Affairs at Home 354

XLIII. At the Front 361 .

XLIV. Gettysburg . . 367

XLV. On Many Battlefields

374

XLVI. The War Debt 381 .

XLVII. The Dawn of Peace 389

XLVIII. The Camden Herald

397

CONTENTS

XLIX. Death of Prominent Citizens

406

L. "Megunticook Hall" 419

LI. Greenback Days

431

LII. The "Bridge Question " Again

438

LIII. Mirror Lake Water

452

LIV. Electric Lights

464

LVI. The Town Divided . 476

LVII. The Great Fire 486

LVIII. From the Ashes 499

LIX. War With Spain .

511

LX. Masonic Centennial

526

LXI. Recent Events in the Two Towns 536

LXII. Conway Memorial 549

LXIII. Ecclesiastical ·

568

LXIV. Educational

595

LXV. Industrial 601

LXVI. As Summer Resorts 616

LXVII. Last View 627

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

The Author - -

Frontispiece

Lord Camden -

The Old McGlathry House -

- 108

The Cochran - Fay House

- 205

William Carleton

- -

- 258

The Old Carleton Residence -

- 259

Lewis Ogier - - -

- 284

Jonathan Thayer - -

- 305

Joseph Hall

- 324

Main Street, Camden Village, About 1861 - 337 - -

Benjamin Cushing - -

- 384

Horatio Alden - - -

- 408

Ephraim K. Smart - - -

411

Jotham Shepherd - - -

455

Joseph H. Estabrook

- 457

Nathaniel T. Talbot - -

- 468

Ephraim M. Wood - -

- 472

A Camden Village Home, Residence of Mr. H. L. Alden - - - - -

488

- -

xii

xiii

ILLUSTRATIONS

A Rockport Village Home, Residence of Hon. H. L. Shepherd - - - -

- 494

Norumbega - - - -

- 508

Philander J. Carleton - -

- 522

Central Street, Rockport Village -

- - 537

Thaddeus R. Simonton - - - . - -

545

Main Street, Camden Village, 1905 -

- 553

Elm Street, Decorated for Conway Day -

- - 559

Congregational Church, Camden -

- 511

Baptist Church, Rockport -

581

Methodist Church, Camden

- 587

Camden High School - -

- 596

Rockport High School - -

- 597

Holly M. Bean - - -

- 604

Herbert L. Shepherd - - -

- 610

Camden Mountains -

- - 618 -

A Typical Camden Cottage, Summer Home of Col. M. M. Parker, of Washington - - 622 -

- - A Typical Rockport Cottage, Summer Home of Wm. J. Latta, of Philadelphia - - 624 - -

HISTORY of Camden and Rockport, Maine.

CHAPTER I.

FIRST VIEW.

When Capt. George Waymouth, in his good ship, Archangel, sailed out of the reek and mist of the ocean, toward the rugged shores of Maine, three hundred years ago, it was a pleasing and beautiful perspective that met his view and gladdened the sea- weary eyes of his officers and men. Before him towered the high isle of Monhegan, and beyond it were the green, forest-clad slopes of the main. After weeks spent in watching the irksome waste of wind-tossed waters, across which they had sailed from their English homes, these sailors must have viewed with great delight, the scene of beauty that burst upon them on that mem- orable May morning in the year of grace, 1605, -the gem-like island in its setting of foam, and the distant continent, clothed in the verdure of spring. They made haste to find an anchorage and "at about 12 o'clock that day," (May 18, 1605), 1 says James Rosier, the historian of the voyage, "we came to anchor on the north side of this island, about a league from shore." "From hence, we might discern the mainland from the W. S. W. to the E. N. E. and a great way, (as it then seemed and we after found it), up into the main, we might discern very high mountains, though the main seemed but low land." The mountains here mentioned are the Camden mountains, which seemed to the Englishmen to be some distance in the interior, for reaching

1. The dates mentioned in this chapter are all "old style." By the new style they would each be 11 days later.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT

Monhegan as they did from the open ocean to the south, 1 they did not know of the great indentation of the coast formed by Penob- scot Bay, whose waters beat against the feet of these mountains. Thus Camden was first viewed by Europeans who actually explored this locality, its towering hills, then as now, being the most prominent landmarks on the coast of Maine west of Penob- scot Bay.

Waymouth and his men, however, were doubtless far from being the first white men who looked upon the "rock-ribbed and ancient" hills of the Camden range., Who first saw them with European eyes, no one can ever know. Perhaps it may have been the bold Icelander, Bjorne Herjulfson, who, in the year 986, A. D., while sailing to Greenland, was buffeted by adverse winds and driven before the wintry tempests, until he saw on his lee the rocky, ice-bound American continent. Perhaps it may have been the great Norseman, Leif, son of Eric, surnamed the Red, who, in the year 1001, with his thirty-five hardy followers, also driven by a gale from the shores of Greenland, reached the Amer- ican continent, sailed along the coast of Maine, to the genial climate of southern New England, and, perhaps, built the great round tower at Newport, which stands today an imperishable monument to the boldness and heroism of the "sea-kings" of the North. If the Vikings did discover our coast, it was forgotten when they left it, for five hundred years, until in 1498, the great Cabot, reached Newfoundland, and thence came to the coast of Maine. Afterwards many other voyagers from European countries are said to have sailed along our shores. Verrazzani, the French navigator, came here, we are told, in 1524; Gomez, the Spaniard, in 1525 ; and in 1556, the priestly Andre Thevet, sailed his French ship into Penobscot Bay and conferred with the Indians there. All of these may, some of them must, have seen the lofty shores of Camden, but nothing resulted from their visits. Nearly

1. Waymouth first sighted the Massachusetts coast, thence sailing north to Monhegan.

FIRST VIEW

fifty years later, in 1602, while "Good Queen Bess" yet lived, Bartholomew Gosnold sailed along the Maine coast, and the glowing account given on his return, caused the Bristol mer- chants to fit out two vessels, the following year, for the purpose of traffic and explorations. One of these vessels, the Speedwell, carried thirty men and boys, and the other, the Discoverer, car- ried thirteen men and one boy. The command of these vessels was given to Martin Pring, a friend of Gosnold and Raleigh, who followed the route of the former in his voyage the year before, reached the coast of Maine, and entered a bay full of islands, which was Penobscot Bay. Some of the company visited the islands of Vinal Haven and North Haven, where they found silver-gray foxes and named the group "Fox Islands," by which name it is still known. Beyond the bay was "a high country full of great woods," which description applies to the "woods and steepy mountains" of Camden and vicinity as they must have appeared in 1603, and which delighted the eyes of these early mariners. Capt. Pring, although well stocked with bright colored garments, knives, kettles, silver rings and bracelets, and other trinkets, to trade with the natives, saw no savages in the Penobscot, and shortly sailed away to Casco Bay and the Saco. And then, two years later, sent out by King James, came Capt. Waymouth, the real explorer of the Knox County region.

For nearly two hundred and fifty years after Capt. Waymouth's voyage, it was a matter of conjecture and dispute as to exactly what part of our coast he visited after exploring Monhegan, and leaving his anchorage on the north side of that island. It has been claimed by some that he sailed up the Kennebec and by others, the Penobscot, but neither of these claims were ever satisfactorily established. It is now settled, however, apparently beyond controversy, that he sailed up the St. Georges river and that the country he explored is what is now the southern and central portion of Knox County. This theory was first advanced by Capt. George Prince, a native of Thomaston, in 1858, and

HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT

has since been accepted by all authorities, and the wonder is that readers of Rosier's account of Waymouth's explorations, did not reach the right solution of the disputed question many years before.

After remaining at Monhegan two days, Rosier says that they weighed anchor and sailed along to the other islands "more adjoining to the main and in the road directly with the mountains, about three leagues from the first island where we had anchored." As the St. George islands are the only group about three leagues from Monhegan and are directly "in the road with" the Camden mountains, there can be no question that they are the islands next visited by Waymouth's company. They found a

goodly haven " among these islands, which they named "Pen- tecost Harbor," because they reached it on Whitsuntide. They landed here, probably on Allen's Island, the outermost and one of the largest of the group, and "set up a cross on the shore side upon the rocks ;" and there they found at their first coming "where fire had been made, and about the place were very great egg-shells, bigger than goose eggs, fish bones, and the bones of some beast." . The following day they put together the pinnace which they had brought in pieces from England, dug wells, cut trees for spars and fuel, fished, "pulled off much gum" from the spruce trees, and on Wednesday, May 22, planted the first gar- den on Maine soil, sowing barley and pease; and, in short, enjoyed themselves so well that, says Rosier, "many of our com- pany wished themselves settled here."

Having previously fitted out his shallop, the captain and thir- teen of his men, on May 30, started out to explore the river, but they returned the next day, for, says the journalist of the expedi- tion, "our captain had, in this small time, discovered up a great river, trending along into the main, forty miles; and by the length, breadth, depth and strong flood, imagining it to run far up into the land, he with speed returned, intending to flank his light horseman or gig against Indian arrows, should the river

FIRST VIEW

become narrow enough to bring it in reach of them." After some days spent in exchanging visits and presents with the natives, exploring the harbor, etc., on June 11 they went up the river with the ship, "about six and twenty miles." The narrator de- scribes the river as "of a bold shore ; most free from sands and dangerous rocks in a continual good depth, with a most excellent land fall." He further describes it as follows: "For the river itself, as it runneth up into the main very nigh forty miles towards the great mountains, 1 beareth in breadth a mile, sometimes three- quarters, and half a mile is the narrowest, where you shall never have under four and five fathoms of water hard by the shore, but six, seven, nine and ten fathoms all along ; and on both sides every half mile, very gallant coves, some able to contain almost a hundred sail. - It floweth, by their judgment, 18 or 20 feet at high water. As we passed with gentle wind up with our ship in this river, any man may conceive with what admira- tion we all consented with joy." The company compared the river in size, etc., to famous rivers of the world, but Rosier remarks, "I will not prefer it before our river of Thames, because it is England's richest treasure." The description given by Rosier fits the St. Georges river perfectly, with the exception of his esti- mate of the distance up which he sailed and the height of the tide, both of which are over-estimates, such as perhaps would naturally be made by anyone sailing, for the first time, up a strange river through a savage country.

"Wednesday, the 12th of June, our captain manned his light horseman with 17 men and run up from the ship, riding in the river, up to the codde thereof, where we landed, leaving six to keep the light-horseman till our return. Ten of us with our shot, and some armed, with a boy to carry powder and match, marched up into the country towards the mountains which we descried at our first falling in with the land. Unto some of them

1. A rule laid upon the map along the course of the St. Georges River from Thomaston to the sea, points exactly to the Camden Mountains.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT

the river brought us so near, as we judged ourselves when we landed to have been within a league of them, but we marched up about four miles in the main, and passed over three hills." After giving a detailed description of the country over which they marched, the writer says: "Upon the hills grow notable timber trees, masts for ships of 400 tons; and at the bottom of every hill a little run of fresh water ; but the fartherest and last we passed ran with a great stream able to drive a mill." 1 In this description, a part of which is given above, the "codde" or small bay, is supposed to be the broadened bend of the river at Thomaston. The mountain towards which the river brought them near, was prob- ably Mt. Madambettox or Methebesec, or as it is frequently called, "Dodge's mountain," the first of the Camden range, located in Rockland back of the "Meadows." 2 The description of the country over which their route lay, answers well to the Meadows of Rockland and Thomaston, and adjacent territory; while the great stream" may have been Mill River, or perhaps, Oyster River. Waymouth's next step was to penetrate into the country by going up the river, which he did on June 13, in his light- horseman. His company was furnished with armor and shot, "both to defend and offend," and "went from the ship up in that part of the river which trended westward into the main to search that." They carried a cross to erect at a point since

1. Mr. John L. Locke, the first historian of Camden, adopting the theory that Waymouth sailed up the Penobscot, endeavors to show that the crew of the Archaugel visited Camden, claiming that the " codde " was Goose River; that the " three hills " over which they marched, were Amsbury's and Sum- mer Street Hills in Rockport, and Ogier's Hill in Camden; that the "great stream able to drive a mill," was the Megunticook River; and that the mountain that they reached was Mt. Battie. Later, however, having gone over the ground, he gave up his original theory and concurred in the opin- ion of Capt. Prince, that it was the St. Georges River, up which the explorer sailed.

2. See Eaton's History of Thomaston, Rockland and So. Thomaston. Vol. I, page 18.

FIRST VIEW

known as "Watson's Point." 1 "For this, (by the way) we diligently observed, that in no place, either about the islands, or up in the main, or alongst the river, we could discern any token or sign that any Christian had been before ; of which, either by cutting wood, digging for water, or setting up crosses (a thing never omitted by any Christian travelers) we should have per- ceived some mention left." They rowed up the river, the beauty of the wilderness surrounding which is well described (although the distance is again over-estimated ), presumably to about where Warren village now stands, and returned to their ship with the tide, and the next day, by towing with their two boats, with the aid of the tide and what wind there was, they got the Archangel down to the mouth of the river, and on the following Sunday sailed for home ..

While Capt. Waymouth probably did not visit the territory comprised within the limits of the original town of Camden, he was the first white man, so far as our knowledge goes, who explored the main land of the State of Maine, by landing on the territory afterwards incorporated as the County of Knox, and coming within a short distance of what was afterwards Camden, guided by the Camden mountains, which majestically towered amid the beauty of the primeval solitude, then as now, compel- ling the attention and admiration of all whose eyes beheld their grandeur ; and beneath whose summits, centuries later, was to exist and flourish

"- the beautiful town That is seated by the sea."

1. At an elaborate and successful celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of Capt. Waymouth, held at Thomaston in June, 1905, crosses were placed where Waymouth's cross is supposed to have been placed, on Allen's Island, and near the foot of Knox street where he is supposed to have landed, and a granite boulder, with a tablet inscribed to the event, was permanently placed on the mall at Thomaston village.

HISTORY OF CAMDEN AND ROCKPORT

CHAPTER II.

LOCATION, NATURAL FEATURES, CLIMATE, ETC.

The territory comprised within the limits of the old town of Camden, before its division into the present towns of Camden and Rockport, is situated upon the western shore of Penobscot Bay, in the County of Knox, at about 44° 10' north latitude and 69º 5' west longitude. 1 It is bounded on the north by the town of Lin- colnville in the County of Waldo ; on the east by Penobscot Bay ; on the south by the city of Rockland and the the towns of Warren and Union ; and on the west by the town of Hope; the last four municipalities being all located in the County of Knox.

The plantation which was afterwards incorporated into the town of Camden, was surveyed by David Fales of Thomaston, in 1768, and the various lots into which it was then divided, " as per Fales' survey," are to this day often seen quoted in deeds of Camden and Rockport real estate. According to this survey, the township was then six miles in length and five miles and sixty-two rods in width. The northern boundary, which is still often referred to in deeds as "The Twenty Associates' Line," began at a rock marked XX on the shore of the harbor, and thence ran north 33 3-4° west. This line, starting at the rock marked XX, which was a short distance southerly of the steamboat wharf, crossing the "Belfast Road " a short distance northerly of Mr. W. G. Alden's residence, and passing across the southwesterly base of Mt. Battie, extended to the easterly corner of Hope. This boundary left Mts. Battie and Megunticook and a large part of what is now Camden village, within the town of Lincolnville. The territory lying between this line and the present Lincolnville line, was set off to Camden before its incorporation as a town, on the petition of

1. The exact latitude and longitude of Camden harbor, at Negro Islan 1 Light, according to the U. S. Lighthouse Book : 44º 12' 5'' N. Lat. and 69° 2' 58'/ W. Long., and of Rockport harbor at Indian Island Light, according to the same authority : 44º 9' 55'/ N. Lat. and 69º 3' 42"' W. Long.

LOCATION AND NATURAL FEATURES

some of its inhabitants, who desired to be included in the same township as the "harbor village " on account of their close proxim- ity to the same. The township then contained about 23,500 acres.

The surface of the territory is mountainous throughout, there being but comparatively few acres of flat land in the whole original township, which is diversified with a wonderful contrast of low hills, lofty mountains, gentle slopes, precipitous cliffs, rounded summits and rugged peaks. The principal peaks of the Camden range, (which extends from Rockland to Northport, and is the most prominent feature of our landscape), are found within the limits of "Old Camden." They are, according to Dr. Jackson, entirely of a grey variety of mica slate formation, 1 with consol- idated strata, inclining to the horizon at an angle of seventy degrees. Before the settlement of this region they were covered with heavy growth, wherever trees could find root upon their rugged sides. Mt. Megunticook, located in the northern part of the present town of Camden, and extending into Lincolnville, is the highest elevation, being variously estimated at from 1265 feet above the sea, as estimated by the U. S. coast surveyors, to 1457 feet as estimated by Dr. C. T. Jackson. Its great slope extends from its summit to the shore of the bay, and well meets Capt. John Smith's description of the "high mountains of the Penobscot against whose feet doth beat the sea." Mt. Battie, which, according to the U. S coast surveyors, rises to the height of about 1000 feet, is located directly south of and adjoining Megunticook, and stands like a watchful sentinel over the village lying beneath it. Mt. Bald, standing back from the coast near the Hope line, is another lofty peak about 1140 feet high as measured by the U. S. surveyors, while farther south towers the massive form of Mt. Hosmer, sometimes called Ragged Moun- tain, from its rugged and irregular appearance. The line of the present towns of Camden and Rockport runs directly over the

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History of Camden and Rockport, Maine, Part 1

Author: Robinson, Reuel Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Camden, Me. : Camden Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 678

Author: Robinson, Reuel
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Camden, Me. : Camden Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 678